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The BMW Motorrad International GS Trophy Female Team Qualifying 2017. Two Female Teams selected for BMW Motorrad International GS Trophy 2018 in Mongolia.

Fri Nov 17 16:39:41 CET 2017 Press Release

The BMW Motorrad International GS Trophy Female Team Qualifying 2017 has concluded with something of a surprise outcome. After four days of competition at the Country Trax Off Road Riding Academy near Amersfoort in South Africa not one but two teams have qualified for the sixth BMW Motorrad International GS Trophy that will be held in Mongolia in June 2018.

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Munich. The BMW Motorrad International GS Trophy
Female Team Qualifying 2017 has concluded with something of a surprise
outcome. After four days of competition at the Country Trax Off
Road Riding Academy near Amersfoort in South Africa not one but two
teams have qualified for the sixth BMW Motorrad International GS
Trophy that will be held in Mongolia in June 2018. Such has been the
high standard of riding at this event, the BMW Motorrad team
decided, in a spontaneous act, to ‘double up’ and take six women GS
riders to Mongolia.

The path to qualification hasn’t been easy. After their national
qualifiers 23 women from 13 countries (South
Africa, Australia, France, USA, Germany, UK, Malaysia, Japan,
Canada, Mexico, Colombia, China, Thailand) won their way through to
the BMW Motorrad International GS Trophy Female Team Qualifying in
South Africa, no doubt expecting a tough competition, conducted in
the toughest conditions, all under a hot African sun. They certainly
found tough conditions, but not the expected as huge thunderstorms
rolled across the veldt on all four days (and nights). The sun made
only fleeting visits when the clouds reluctantly allowed.

Day 1 saw the participants’ arrival and immediate
immersion into the competition. As is the nature of the GS Trophy
anything and everything can be a challenge, and so the organising team
set the women immediately onto their first challenge: to get their
tents pitched and changed into riding gear – against the clock, of
course. Now ready for adventure action, three back-to-back challenges
were set: a 50 metre run followed by a dash on the GS up a hill to a
stop box; a test of balancing a GS while walking around it – one
handed, and repeated twice; and third, a riding-blindfolded test,
where the women had to try to reach a target set at the far end of
the field (much harder than it sounds). Two out of the three tests
were completed before a huge thunderstorm rolled menacingly in,
forcing the organisers to postpone the balance until the morning.

Day 2 proved to be a marathon day. Started at 7am, so as to complete
the challenges from day one, but then followed by no less than six
more challenges. These included a speed test riding a slalom course
in deep sand and a time-trial (cross-country course) complete with
Le Mans start to again assess the women’s higher-speed riding
capability. After dinner that night the participants received a
nasty surprise when the nine-lowest scoring participants were
eliminated from the competition, or ‘promoted to spectator status’
as event manager Stefan Boshoff described it. The day wasn’t over,
though, as the remaining 14 participants were sent
out at 10pm for a 25km night-navigation challenge (in three teams)
complete with a further challenge of repairing a puncture at the
mid-point. The teams rolled back at just before midnight, successful
but exhausted after a 17 hour day.

Day 3 started with another mechanical aptitude test as the
participants were challenged to remove the rear wheel from their GS
then run with it for 50 metres then refit it – all within four
minutes. Not easy with five torqued wheel studs to loosen, realign
and tighten with only a modest sized T-bar. Then followed a slow
race, made all the more difficult as the grass was soaking, making
wheel spin a constant worry. Two technical riding challenges
followed that proved incredibly tricky as the constant rains had
rendered the clay soil ice-like – throttle control and balancing
skills have never been more severely tested. Later the women set off
cross-country across the Country Trax 600 acres to find two more
tough riding challenges that tested their ability to ride steep
off-cambers and to make fast weaving progress over slick terrain.
Tough technical challenges that trials riders revel in, much harder
on a near 250-kilo GS. Again the women shone – until yet another
thunderstorm forced another retreat as pelting rain and lightning
strikes rendered the exposed hillsides a dangerous place to be. That
night came another unexpected elimination and five more participants
found themselves out of the running. The final day would be a
battle of the best nine for the three finalists’
positions – or so they thought.

Day 4 – the last day – started under the same leaden skies as the
three previous. The remaining nine tried to calm their nerves; those
in the top positions contemplating defense strategies while the
other six were coming with a win-or-bust attitude. In the end all
simply had to do their best. The first challenge combined a fairly
straightforward ride through a straw bale maze with an
energy-draining fractionally uphill backwards push of their GS to
the finish line. Each competitor at least had the moral and vocal
support of the other 22. It was a case of digging deep, and then
digging some more.

Raising the GS onto a huge fallen tree trunk was the next
challenge. Obviously too much for any one participant this was a
three-person team challenge. Despite some of the women being of
diminutive stature, all three teams managed this in fine style. Then
came the finale: a lap of a parcours course, calling for a broad
spectrum of skills to deal with a see-saw, balance beams, 180º
‘elephant turns’ and the tricky matter of straddling their GS along
a fallen telegraph pole and riding it along in a manoeuvre called a
‘log grind’. It was a long lap that called for sustained
concentration, endurance and skills – a fine all-encapsulating
challenge to end the competition.

All that could follow was the totalling of the scores and
announcement of the winners. A tense occasion. The emotional release
as the three winners – Ezelda van Jaarsveld (South
Africa), Julia Maguire (Australia) and Sonia Barbot (France) – were
called was huge with tears of joy, congratulations and commiserations.

But then, for another three – Jocelin Snow
(USA), Linda Steyn (South Africa) and Bettina Nedel (USA) – came the
sudden news that they too would be going to Mongolia. As you often
here said, but rarely believe, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house –
and there wasn’t.

The second BMW Motorrad International GS Trophy Female Team
Qualifying 2017 has been a resounding success and the resilience of
the organisers, let alone the participants, to keep the competition
going in the face of extreme weather has said much for the GS
Spirit. Mongolia beckons, an adventure into a magical, remote
region. These six women have all shown they have
the skills, the physical capability and that explorational
inspirational GS mindset to indeed make their lives a ride.

(the above all go to the BMW Motorrad International GS Trophy in
Mongolia in June 2018, forming two Female Teams; the composition of
the two teams will be announced at a later stage)

Jessica Leyne (France)

Marion Linder (Germany)

Louise Hodgkinson (UK)

Stephanie Schinkel (Mexico)

Andrea Box (Australia)

Leticia Benitez (Mexico)

Gritt Ahrens (Germany)

Khai Zabidin (Malaysia).

Ai Mizutani (Japan)

Valerie Heroux (Canada)

Camila Mejia (Colombia)

Sun Renhui (China)

Wanwisa Phirom (Thailand)

Kirsty Hodges (UK)

Louise Mitchell (Canada)

Xiaomin Li (China)

23 Yoshida Miko (Japan).

Statements from the winning riders:

Ezelda van Jaarsveld (South Africa): I’m quite surprised, amazed – it’s unbelievable! I have no
other words for the emotion. The standard has been high and I have
been astonished by the riding skills of the girls, while the
camaraderie has been awesome. It still all has to sink in, what’s
happened. I guess now I’ll have to continue my training programme,
improve on the skills that I have. As well, to have my friend Linda
on the team is amazing, I’m so pleased for her, too.

Julia Maguire (Australia): I’m so excited, very-very excited. Relieved! It’s been an
emotional few days, although I think you always get that with a
bunch of women! But so, so pumped to be going to Mongolia. I
believed I could do it, and here we are! I didn’t know what level of
riders would be coming, and the girls have been amazing, so it was
challenging to keep it together through the whole thing, it was
intense. Telling yourself, ‘you’ve done this a million times’ – I’ve
been riding so many years – but then suddenly the pressure is on,
everyone is watching, it’s a lot harder than doing it in the paddock
at my parents’ place back at home! The pressure was tough, but I
just had to believe, to do it. What is it they say? ‘Smooth is fast
and fast is smooth!’

Sonia Barbot (France): I’m very excited, this is unbelievable, it’s just wow. It
proves the saying: never give up! And now I’ll have to learn more
English for when I get to Mongolia! And I’ll have to do more
practicing and training. At home I have my husband and my son – and
my mum and all my friends, I can’t wait to tell them. And to be
going to Mongolia... I’ve had a dream of going to Tibet, and
Mongolia is almost next door, so this is special for me. But mostly
now I’m thinking I need to learn more English so I can explain more
what this means to me. Merci, BMW!

Jocelin Snow (USA): That was shocking, because the talent in this little area here
is huge. These women are so very skilled and to be here now, a
winner, is incredible – and for there to be two teams that was
surprise! And now what was really just a long-distance fuzzy dream
that I was expecting to come true for the other women is now true
for me – foof! More importantly than going to Mongolia, more
importantly than making the team, I really want this to inspire
other women out there. Just to get one more female to take a ride,
one more female to take a risk, to step up and do it, not let anyone
say you can’t do it. If that happens then that’s a win.

Linda Steyn (South Africa): I’m ecstatic. We worked hard for this, so there’s relief too.
When they announced the results and they called the third placed
rider – and it wasn’t me – I felt so disappointed for a split
second, but then I was like, ‘just be happy for them, it’s been an
experience, a journey, and this is not the end.’ Then when they said
there was going to be a second team I was just ‘waaaaaaaaah!’ Now
I’m going to start training again, there were a couple f things I
wanted to do by the time I got to here, but I couldn’t conquer them,
so I’m going to try and have them practiced in time for Mongolia.
I’ll get back on my trials bike, for feet-up stuff and on my GS. I
can’t wait to tell my hubby and my two sons, they all ride and I
know they’ll support me as we go on.

Bettina Nedel (USA): Oh my gosh, this is epic for me, priceless – all of the
greatest words can’t describe this feeling. And my family has grown,
and I have grown with them. BMW has put on such an amazing – epic –
event. Epic is the word! It was very emotional the whole way and at
the end when they announced the winners that too was a roller
coaster. Thinking I had missed out when they announced the first
three – we only expected three to go – you can’t help but feel
disappointed. But then to hear you’re going after all, and to be
going with Jocelin, my American team-mate, was just so amazing. You
know, the camaraderie between all the riders has been amazing but it
has grown exponentially between Jocelin and I.

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PressClub at www.press.bmwgroup.com

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Fuel consumption figures based on the EU test cycle, may vary depending on the tyre format specified.

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Fuel consumption figures based on the EU test cycle, may vary depending on the tyre format specified.

Further information on official fuel consumption figures, specific CO2 emission values and the electric power consumption of new passenger cars is included in the guideline "Guideline for fuel consumption, CO2 emissions and electric power consumption of new passenger cars", which can be obtained from all dealerships, from Deutsche Automobil Treuhand GmbH (DAT), Hellmuth-Hirth-Str. 1, 73760 Ostfildern-Scharnhausen and at http://www.dat.de.